Zoo News Digest 30th September - 3rd October 2015
(ZooNews 910)
(ZooNews 910)
Peter Dickinson
elvinhow@gmail.com
Dear Colleague.
My birthday today.
It was a good night last night but I woke up this morning with that 'never
again' feeling. Then the other feeling came upon me…just how did I get this
far along life's journey? When I really think about it has
been mostly good. I continue to learn every day but one thing I am very sure
of….these are best days of my life. I would not go back one , ten, twenty or
thirty years if the wish was granted me. I would also turn down any offer of
eternal youth. My life, all our lives is about the here and now. I'm living
mine.
Although probably
not the best birthday present of my life it comes pretty close. The Penguin
Team from Ski Dubai got 1st place in Research Advancements at IMATA in the
Bahamas. I am so proud of the whole team. That is those here now and those who
have come before. They all played their part in making our Penguins the
happiest and most enriched on the planet. In spite of our huge achievements
these past few years I truly believe we have only scratched the surface of what
we can learn. Special mention must be made of Anna Svensson who gave the
presentation, pulled it together and did so much work on her special project.
We feel proud of her, Sweden should too.
Delighted to see
that some zoos have banned the use of plastic bags and following on from that,
bottled water. This is another huge step in the right direction. If all would
now follow on and stop using any product which uses unsustainable Palm Oil in
its production. We in zoos really can make a difference to the world. Not just
in the conservation of animals but in the conservation of other things too. We
need to think about our children and our children's children.
I remarked on
Facebook about the article I posted on Toronto Zoo's White lions was a step in
the right direction. How wrong I was. Every other newspaper mentioned 'rare' at
least twice. Very sad really. This global population of white lions is
unmanaged and is damaging in many ways. The bullshitters will have a lot to
answer for. It will take decades to put the situation to rights once again.
Saddened to learn of
the attempted suicide by the keeper in Thiruvananthapuram. Most in the West are
unaware of the huge frustrations experienced by zoo staff are lumbered with a
'daily wage' or 'casual employee' status. Many of these have worked in zoos for
ten, fifteen or more years and are experienced professionals but still looked
upon as 'shit shovellers' because of the nonsensical bureaucratic crap they
work under.
*******************************************************************************
Interesting Links
Belgian scientists look for biofuel clues in panda poo
Belgian researchers
are examining the excrement of giant pandas to try to understand how they can
digest tough bamboo, hoping for clues on how to develop new generations of
biofuel.
The genetic make-up
of endangered pandas is that of a carnivore but the animals have adapted to a
diet consisting almost exclusively of bamboo.
While a few
scientific studies have looked into the digestive tract of the panda, the
researchers say their study is the first to focus on the microorganisms in the
animal's gut.
"We can look
for new enzymes which could be used to degrade tough biomass," said
Korneel Rabaey, professor for biochemical and microbial technology at Ghent
University, standing outside the giant panda enclosure at the Pairi Daiza zoo
in Belgium.
The results of the
study may point to new, cheap
Detroit Zoo no longer sells bottled water
Visitors to the
Detroit Zoo have one less option if they get thirsty walking the grounds.
The zoo no longer
sells bottled water, part of a multi-year effort to make changes that are
environmentally friendly.
It’s an effort other
zoos are watching closely, said Rob Vernon, spokesman for the Association of
Zoos and Aquariums. He said he believes Detroit is the first zoo in the nation
to stop selling water in plastic bottles.
Instead of 20-ounce
Aquafina bottles the zoo sold for $3.99, visitors will have to bring their own
containers and can fill them up at filtered water stations. Or they can buy
reusable green-and-white bottles with the zoo logo at $2.59 each.
The switch has had
an effect on the zoo’s bottom line. The sale of Aquafina bottled waters brought
in about $250,000 a year, which breaks
Poop on a Stick Tests Penguins’ Sense of Smell
Who doesn’t enjoy
waking to a pleasant smell wafting past? Unfortunately for them, the penguins
in a recent study woke up not to pancakes frying nearby, but to less appetizing
aromas—for example, feces on a stick. But scientists promise the experiment taught
them valuable lessons about a penguin’s capabilities. Besides, they let the
birds go right back to sleep.
“Research into the
sense of smell in birds has a bit of a dubious history,” says Gregory
Cunningham, a biologist at St. John Fisher College. In recent decades,
scientists have begun to get a better grasp on what birds can smell, but
there’s still a lot to learn.
With king penguins
(Aptenodytes patagonicus), researchers have focused more on sound than smell.
The birds form monogamous pairs to breed; parents take turns caring for the egg
or chick and foraging for food. When a penguin returns from the sea, it uses the
sound of its partner’s squawk to find it among the huge breeding colony.
Penguins seem to use
their sense of smell to help them hunt for fish, so it’s possible the birds
also use smell to find each other. Maybe they can sniff out the colony when
they’re getting close; m
Bats are important and October is their month
Australia Zoo exodus: ‘Vet sacked during an operation’
A VETERINARIAN at
Terri Irwin's Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital was allegedly sacked mid-surgery
last month, as staff turnover spirals and fears for animal safety increase.
Sources say 12 staff
have left in the past six months, including the highly-regarded head vet Dr
Claude Lacasse.
Vet Dr Jackie Reed
was allegedly stopped while operating on a koala and told she was out of a job.
It's understood the Wildlife Hospital employs 16 nursing staff and four vets at
a time.
More than half of
these have had to be replaced or the positions are still vacant, with the zoo
advertising on its website.
The hospital is one
of the projects operated by Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors Ltd, a registered
charity.
It is funded by
donations and the Sunshine Coast Council contributes $50,000 a year as part of
its draft Koala Conservation Plan.
All staff employed
at the zoo are required to sign confidentiality contracts on employment and
those concerned about what is happening there say they are afraid of speaking
out for fear of being sued.
Australia Zoo
declined to comment on the staffing situation, preferring instead to focus on
the good work of the hospital.
But at least four
sources, plus two carers who agreed to be quoted directly, have contacted the
Daily and provided insight into the situation.
Wildlife carers
Margaret Hewitt and Diane Meldrum revealed they no longer felt comfortable
sending sick animals there.
In the past month,
six nurses have left and Dr Lacasse, who had been employed at the zoo for seven
years, quit two weeks ago.
"Ever since
Australia Zoo got involved
http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/crikey-its-an-oz-zoo-exodus-vet-was-sacked-in-the/2795397/
Critically
endangered Sumatran rhino pregnant again
A rare Sumatran
rhino in Indonesia is pregnant with her second baby and expected to give birth
in May, raising new hope for the critically endangered species,
conservationists said Tuesday.
Only about 100
Sumatran rhinos are believed to exist in the entire world so the pregnancy is
seen as tremendously good news for those trying to save the animals from
extinction.
The mother is Ratu,
a wild rhino who wandered out of the rainforest and into the Sumatran Rhino
Sanctuary in Indonesia’s Way Kambas National Park 10 years ago.
She got pregnant in
January after mating with Andalas, a male rhino at the park, said Susie Ellis,
director of the International Rhino Foundation.
Sumatran rhinos have
very long pregnancies that last about 16 months, even though they are the
smallest of the living
http://us9.campaign-archive1.com/?u=9a402d65513c851c2f8b6ca99&id=dfe6d9a52e&e=926536953b
Animal Keeper Attempts Suicide
An animal keeper at the city zoo allegedly
attempted suicide on Friday by locking himself up inside the cobra enclosure.
Both the keeper and
Director of Museums and Zoos were unavailable for comment.
Zoo sources said
that the keeper, a temporary employee who has spent more than a decade at the
zoo, was disappointed that he was still not a permanent employee.
To get permanent
employment as an animal keeper at the zoo, one needs prior experience in
handling wild animals. Experience as a temporary employee does not count. In
the master plan, it is suggested that people with a zoo-keeping course from
Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University are eligible.
This would mar the
opportunities of the temporary staff who have been working at the zoo for
years. When contacted, the keeper confirmed the news. He said that the process
to make him permanent had started more than six months ago, but with financial
difficulties mounting, he decided to take his life as and the papers had not
Whatever Happened to Tbilisi Zoo? – A Eulogy of Sorts
One such tale is the
sad fate of Guliko Nozadze, a much-beloved zoo caretaker, who, along with her
husband and an elderly watchman, perished in the overpowering waves of the as
they worked to release trapped animals from their cages. And all that only three
days after she was discharged from hospital, where she ended up after losing an
arm in a tiger attack.
Death of young elephant at Oklahoma City Zoo fuels
breeding debate
A 4-year-old
elephant at the Oklahoma City Zoo, where Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo moved its
two female elephants this spring, died suddenly Thursday.
Zoo officials say
they will perform a necropsy to determine what killed Malee, the first elephant
born at the zoo. Staff had treated her for a type of herpes infection
particularly deadly to young elephants.
Behold, the San Antonio dragon master!
Daenerys Targaryen
may hold sway over three flying, fire-breathing dragons on HBO’s hit “Game of
Thrones,” but the fictional despot and her fantasy creatures have nothing on
the very real Craig Pelke and his very real dragons at the San Antonio Zoo.
Parents sympathise with zookeepers seeking to soothe
gorillas in daylight saving transition
Melburnians will
have an hour sliced out of their sleeping time this weekend, although with the
grand final, warmer weather and the long weekend, few will be complaining.
Spare a thought,
then, for those who struggle to adjust to daylight saving.
According to
Melbourne Zoo senior primate keeper Damian Lewis, primates – our closest
relatives in the animal kingdom – can be a little touchy about the transition
to daylight saving, beholden as they are to the routines of their keepers.
"Their
day-to-day lives are based around daylight hours [in the wild], so they might
wake up a bit earlier and they might go to bed a bit later," Mr Lewis
said.
Safe Havens for Slow Movers
Following
a heavy downpour on a summer afternoon earlier this year, the turtle sanctuary
at the Dr. Cecilia Koo Botanic Conservation Center (KBCC) in southern Taiwan
was teeming with life—albeit life at a slow pace. After the rain, the lumbering
creatures on the institution’s grounds began to stir, preparing to take a walk
in the comparatively cool air. Their current comfortable, carefree lives stand
in sharp contrast with the dangers they faced only a few years ago. “Smugglers
were ready to ship the turtles to mainland China when they were intercepted by
police,” says Kuo Jui-hsuan (郭睿軒), a collection manager for the KBCC. “Many could
have died on the trip across the Taiwan Strait if they hadn’t been rescued.”
Established
in 2008 by Koo Cheng-yun (辜成允), chairman of Taiwan Cement Corp., the Pingtung
County-based KBCC was borne from the idea that plant biodiversity in Taiwan and
around the world is precious and must be preserved. As the center grew, so too
did its ambitions, with a new focus placed on threatened and endangered animal
species. The re-evaluation of its mission occurred when, at the end of 2013,
the Forestry Bureau under the Council of Agriculture (COA) asked Li Chia-wei (李家維), the
chief executive officer of the KBCC, if the institution could take in
yellow-margined box turtles confiscated from smugglers. The conservationist
agreed a
Who Are You Calling a Deadly Sin?
At the National Zoo
in Washington, D.C., there lives a three-toed sloth. Specifically, this sloth
occupies a box in the Small Mammal House.
At least, that’s
where the sloth has been every single time I have visited the zoo, and I have
been five times over the past two years. Of course, the sloth does leave his
box; friends sometimes send me cellphone photos and videos, capturing the sloth
while he hangs from a tree branch or climbs around—but in spite of my best
efforts, I’ve never seen him outside the box.
And after two years
of trying, I don’t want to.
It’s hard to
explain, but you have to start way, way back in tim
Marwell Mammal Nutrition Seminar
Marwell Wildlife Mammal
Nutrition Seminar - Day 1
Tuesday 3rd November
8.30-9.00
Registration
9.00-9.10 Welcome
9.10-10.40 One Health
o
The
role of Vitamin D in mammal diets
Susan Lanham-New
o
A One
Health perspective on the role of microbes in nutrition
Roberto la Ragione
o
Nutrition for health and longevity
Teresa Hollands
10.40-11.10 Tea/Coffee
Break / Poster presentations
11.10-12.10 Roughage,
Grass and Browse Feeding
o
The
principles and practice of paddock management for nutrition of ungulates in zoos
Andy Beer
o
Forage provision and
nutrient sampling at ZSL London Zoo
Sven Seiffert
12.10-13.00 Lunch
13.00-14.30 Nutrition
in practice
o
Nutrition in relation to ecology and behaviour
Will Justice
o
Diet review for Pygmy Hippopotamus at Marwell Wildlife, to better meet recommended nutritional practices
for this species and help resolve obesity issues
Jackie
Moody
o
The Nutritional Dilemma
Penny Buttling
14.30-15.00 Tea/Coffee
Break / Poster presentations
15.00-16.00 Workshops
(at selected stations)
16.00-16.30 Train
pickup
Marwell Wildlife Mammal
Nutrition Seminar - Day 2
Wednesday 4th November
8.30-9.00 Registration and Welcome
9.00-10.30 Disease and Health Management
o
Diabetes
mellitus in zoo animals; a nutrition related disease
Yedra Feltrer
o
Diet
manipulations and hypercholesterolaemia in captive meerkats
Amanda Ferguson
o
Wasting
syndrome across a range of mammal species
Amy Plowman
10.30-11.00 Tea/Coffee
Break / Poster presentations
11.00-12.30 Natural
Diet, Physiology and Behaviour
o
Fruits
as food: Common misconceptions of feeding frugivores
Christoph Schwitzer
o
The
benefits of fruit-free diets for primates
Amy Plowman
o
Effects
of carcass feeding on behaviour of carnivores
Dani Free
12.30-13.20 Lunch
13.20-14.20 Advances
in Species Specific Nutrition
o
Advances in Giraffe nutrition
Paul Rose
o
Current
practices in Bongo nutrition and browse provision
Ollie Szyszka
14.20-15.00 Panel
Discussion
o
Evolution of nutrition in zoological collections
– past and future
15.00-16.00 Tea/Coffee
Break and option to walk around the park
16.00.16.30 Train
pickup
Detroit Zoo cricket breeding effort aims to save $225K
A new cricket
breeding program at the Detroit Zoo is part of an effort to cut the cost of
feeding animals.
Zoo officials say
crickets are part of the daily diet of about 1,900 amphibians, reptiles, birds
and mammals at the zoo.
The zoo says it
usually spends more than $98,000 a
London Zoo investigates claim a visitor was bitten by
a spider
London Zoo is
investigating a claim that a mother-of-four was bitten by a spider in its new
“In with the Spiders” room.
Elsa Fricker, 33,
has told how she was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery after a
"spider bite" she believes she sustained at popular attraction became
infected.
Toronto Zoo's giant panda pregnant with twins
One of the Toronto
Zoo’s giant pandas is pregnant — with twins.
Zoo staff and
breeding experts observed two separate, fetal heartbeats in ultrasounds taken
in the last week of Er Shun, a female giant panda on loan from China.
The next three to
four weeks are critical, the zoo said in a statement, and “staff are cautiously
hopeful for healthy births within this time frame.
Toronto spokesperson
Jennifer Tracey said the support from people in Toronto and colleagues from
other zoos around the world has been overwhelming.
“It’s an incredible
accomplishment,” she said. “It’s great news for our reproductive program and
for the endangered panda species.”
Er Shun was
artificially inseminated last
Safari park lets visitors pet wild lions as they
introduce torch-lit night time tours
A safari park is
offering extraordinary night tours where visitors can stroke lions in
torchlight and observe the animals in their nocturnal phase.
The unique
excursions take place in special open vehicles with headlights which allow the
guests to see the dozing animals.
The trips are being
organised by the Taigan Safari Park in the Bilohirsk Raion region of Crimea, in
the southern Ukraine.
How to design a good zoo
Last time you were
at the zoo, peering at the gorillas and tigers and elephants did you ever stop
to think about the layout of the various enclosures and architecture of the
buildings?
Rachel Couper has
just published an architectural history of early zoological gardens called
Animal History. As part of her research she visited six of the most important
early zoos - in Paris, London, Berlin, Hamburg,
Gentle giant elephant leaves Howletts Wild Animal Park
for a new life in the sun
One of a Kent wild
animal park's star attractions who has enthralled visitors for 26 years has
been driven off to a new zoo in Spain.
Jums, the
magnificent bull elephant, was crated up on Monday and taken by lorry from
Howletts at Bekesbourne near Canterbury to the Cabarceno Natural Park near
Santander.
Howletts bosses say
the swap is "beneficial" for the elephants and is part of a breeding
exchange programme with a new bull coming from the Cabarceno to take his place.
One year on, killer white tiger becomes Delhi zoo's
biggest celeb
Delhi zoo's white
tiger Vijay, who mauled a man last year, is the biggest attraction for visitors
as zoo footfall jumps this year Ayear ago, a 20-year-old man was mauled by
Delhi zoo's white tiger, Vijay, after he jumped inside the tiger's enclosure.
The incident was witnessed live by scores and was later played on loop and
widely shared, making Vijay a topic of discussion. Since then, no zoo visitor
wants to miss out on seeing the 'killer' tiger and zoo officials say his
popularity is the reason behind increased footfall.
*****
New Meetings and Conferences updated Here
Zoo Conferences, Meetings, Courses and Symposia
If you have anything to add then please email me at elvinhow@gmail.com
I will include it when I get a minute. You know it makes sense.
Recent Zoo Vacancies
Zoo Jobs
Vacancies in Zoos and Aquariums and Wildlife/Conservation facilities around the World
*****
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Peter Dickinson
Zoo News Digest - http://zoonewsdigest.blogspot.com/
Dubai: ++ 971 (0)50 4787 122
Skype: peter.dickinson48
Mailing address: (not where I live...currently in Dubai)
2 Highgate
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Dolwen
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North Wales
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United Kingdom
"These are the best days of my life"
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